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A large American Indian tribe of the United States and Canada, the Ojibwa once controlled a vast territory stretching from Lake Huron westward onto the Great Plains. They spoke a language of the Algonquian language family and are generally considered to be Northeast Indians, though some Ojibwa lived in the Plains and Subarctic culture areas. They are also called the Chippewa, a name that originated as a European mispronunciation of the tribal name. The Ojibwa call themselves Anishinaabe, which means “original people.” In Canada the Ojibwa who lived west of Lake Winnipeg are called the Saulteaux.

Traditionally, the Ojibwa were divided into independent bands that moved from place to place to take advantage of different food resources. In the autumn, bands separated into family units, which spread out to individual hunting areas. In the summer, families gathered together, usually at fishing sites. The Ojibwa relied on the collection of wild rice for a major part of their diet, and a few southern bands also grew corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash. They built dome-shaped homes called wickiups (or wigwams) by covering a wooden pole frame with birch bark.

Tribal tradition indicates that the Ojibwa migrated to the Great Lakes region from the northeast. At that time they were united with the Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples. The three groups separated after reaching what is now northern Michigan.

French explorers arrived on Ojibwa lands in 1622. The tribe traded with the French, giving them furs in return for guns, cloth, and other manufactured items. As the fur trade expanded, pressure from other Indian tribes, combined with the promise of new opportunities elsewhere, urged the Ojibwa to move to the west, north, and south. Some tribal members moved as far west as northern North Dakota and Montana and southern Saskatchewan (Canada). Known as the Plains Ojibwa, they acquired horses and adopted many traits of the Plains Indians, including bison (buffalo) hunting.

In the 1800s the Ojibwa were forced to sign a series of treaties with the U.S. government by which they were stripped of most of their lands. They were confined to reservations scattered throughout their homeland. Today the Ojibwa rank among the most numerous Native American peoples in North America. The U.S. census of 2010 counted more than 170,000 people of Ojibwa descent. The Canadian census of 2011 counted more than 19,000 people who spoke Ojibwa as their main language; they lived mainly in Ontario and Manitoba. The Canadian census figure does not include thousands more Ojibwa who do not speak the native language.

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